Since its inception in 1998, ANTS has been a highly selective, single-track meeting that provided a forum for discussing advances in the field of swarm intelligence. It solicits submissions presenting significant, original research from researchers and practitioners of any area related to swarm intelligence.

Swarm intelligence is an interdisciplinary and rapidly evolving field, rooted in the study of self-organizing processes in both natural and artificial systems. Researchers from disciplines ranging from ethology to statistical physics have developed models that explain collective phenomena, such as decision-making in social insect colonies and collective movements in human crowds. Swarm-inspired algorithms and methods have proven effective in solving complex optimization problems and creating multi-robot and networked systems of unparalleled resilience, adaptability and scalability. Applications of swarm intelligence continue to grow and become increasingly critical for addressing societal challenges such as environmental sustainability, food security, health, and global conflicts.

While building on its tradition of excellence, ANTS 2026 fosters innovation and encourages new perspectives, helping to bridge the boundaries of individual disciplines and enable open debate on what could be ambitious, exploratory, and groundbreaking endeavors to embark on.

Papers are solicited in all areas of swarm intelligence, including, but not limited to:
• Theoretical foundations of swarm intelligence and collective phenomena
• Modeling and analysis of self-organizing systems in nature, including many-particle systems, cellular systems, insect colonies, bird flocks, and human crowds
• Swarm robotics, including colloidal systems, micro-robots, drones, and other autonomous vehicles
• Swarm optimization algorithms, including ACO, PSO, ABC
• LLMs and GenAI-in-the-loop systems in combination with swarm intelligence
• Large-scale distributed networks, such as smart dust, smart cities, or social networks
• Robotic materials and modular robots capable of self-repair, self-assembly or shape-shifting
• Distributed learning, coordination, and control in many-agent systems
• Human-centered swarm intelligence and human-swarm interaction
• Creative and expressive uses of swarm principles in art, education, and interaction and product design
• Benchmarking and reproducibility in swarm intelligence research
• Ethical and societal implications of applications of swarm intelligence research
• Applications of swarm intelligence to real-world challenges